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A key part of sales and marketing alignment is building strong communication between the two groups. At HubSpot, we have built Smarketing (a term that I think was coined by Dan Tyre over two years ago) which is a partnership between sales and marketing that uses a number of different techniques to align sales and marketing better. One of the most fundamental parts of this relationship is communication. We have found that having strong communication between sales and marketing helps in many ways to make both marketing and sales more effective. Based on our experience over the past 4 years, below is a list of tips for improving communication between sales and marketing. All of these sales and marketing communication tips are only one part of building better sales and marketing alignment.

In fact we have a free sales and marketing alignment webinar if you want to learn even more about how we have built a partnership between sales and marketing.

1. Have Sales and Marketing Meet Frequently While there is a growing culture at startups to eliminate meetings, we have found that frequent meetings between sales and marketing help keep the lines of communication open. We have a Smarketing meeting every single week that includes the entire sales and marketing team. We review the activity for the week for both teams, update the sales team on what marketing is doing, and vice versa. Today this meeting is mostly about sharing information – with over 70 people it is no longer a great way to get feedback or discuss something – but in the earlier days of HubSpot it was smaller, more informal and we would discuss things and provide feedback both ways. The meeting takes 30-60 minutes, and both sales and marketing people present, as well as some other groups within the company. In addition to the weekly Smarketing meeting, a subset of each team (about 10 people total) meets monthly to review our results in depth and talk about future plans for improvement. This is where we have more of a discussion, and we hold each other accountable for our portion of the partnership. This meeting started later at HubSpot, once the weekly meeting got too big to use it for discussion. On top of these two standing meetings, there are of course impromptu meetings on different topics, and because of the culture we have built, sales and marketing are usually both represented in those meetings together. So marketing won’t get together to talk about leads without getting input from sales and sales won’t start a new sales effort without including marketing. Sounds like Smarketing to me!

2. Build Multiple Relationships Between Sales and Marketing At other companies the primary relationship between the two teams might be between the VP Marketing and the VP Sales. This is a mistake. Mark Roberge and I try to build strong relationships at multiple levels of our team to make the two teams functions more like one team. You want sales managers talking to marketing managers, you want everyone in marketing talking to individual sales reps. The idea is that rather than every problem bubbling up to the VP of Sales and then having a conversation with the VP Marketing and then it flows downhill, solve the problems at their source by empowering everyone on the team and building relationships at all levels in the team. Today at HubSpot, Mark and I only have to get involved in a small number of issues.

3. Mix Marketing and Sales Desks Together At most companies the majority of communication and relationship-building is informal, so it surprises me when the marketing and sales teams sit in different parts of the office. Some companies might put sales and marketing near each other, but it is still one big group of salespeople and one big group of marketers that happen to sit near each other. What companies should do is mix sales and marketing together. Every marketer should sit next to a sales person and vice versa. The benefit to marketing is that they get to see firsthand what salespeople do, and if the marketing activities they are working on help sales or not. The advantage for sales is they have a marketing person to whom they can ask questions about the leads they are getting and the different marketing programs created. This is also a benefit for marketing, because when salespeople better understand the leads they are getting, they can go after them more effectively, which makes them both more productive and happier. At HubSpot we actually take this office arrangement a step further, and all of our implementation and support consultants also sit among sales and marketing, so we have sales, marketing and post-sales all together, helping to build even more cross functional communication. Using humans natural tendency to be social in order to build better marketing and sales communication works great.

4. Provide Many Types of Feedback Between Marketing and Sales We ask each sales person to rate their leads in our CRM system. We send out periodic surveys to the sales team to give feedback on leads and the sales tools marketing provides. We have 1-1 conversations with many sales reps to get their feedback on marketing in person. We ask sales managers to get 1-1 feedback from their teams and then provide that feedback to marketing. Marketing people go on demos and provide feedback to the sales team on how they are doing. We monitor the stats of each sales rep on their success with following up on leads and show them if they are not doing as well as the rest of the team. The goal of all this activity is to make everyone in marketing and sales feel empowered to offer feedback, and that the feedback is actually used to make decisions and improve things. While everyone in sales or marketing does not always agree with all the decisions they make, I think they would all say that they are part of the team and that both sales and marketing listen to each other and when we make decisions, their voices are heard. This level of feedback and trust is key to successful marketing and sales communication.

5. Agree on Terminology Communication requires the two parties to use a similar language and vocabulary. One of the things that we did at a very early level (only a few employees in the company) was to decide what a “lead” was and what an “opportunity” was, wrote down those definitions, and then built them into our reports and culture. If you don’t have agreement on what a “lead” is, you will constantly have the problem of sales complaining that the leads are bad and marketing complaining that sales is lazy and not working the leads effectively. Our definitions of “leads” and our sales and marketing process have changed a lot over time, but at all times we had firm definitions and had a sales and marketing SLA that defined exactly what each group’s responsibilities and goals were. (In fact, there was one period of two months where one of our definitions got a little hazy, and those were some of the rockiest months in terms of communication between sales and marketing.)

6. Use Data to Communicate Finally, all of this communication between sales and marketing is built off of the principle that data never lies. Salespeople are not allowed to say “the leads suck” without data showing that the conversion rate has dropped or a key demographic factor has waned recently. Marketing isn’t allowed to say “sales are lazy” without data to show that they are only following up on each lead only one time. This does not mean that informal qualitative feedback is not useful in sales and marketing. But it does mean that if there is a way to use data to verify your feelings, you should use the data. At all of our meetings, we use data to understand the current state of sales and marketing, we have daily reports that show exactly the progress of both sales and marketing each day, and we generally don’t answer questions with “it feels like”. Data is a wonderful tool to help remove the emotion from conversations, and to focus your teams on the real problems.

 

The marketing potential of Facebook is huge, but many companies struggle to devise a strategy that’s suitable for such a social platform.

But there are more than 400m active users of Facebook, meaning whatever your product or service, there’s a huge potential market there.

So, how can you use the platform to promote your brand? Here are some of the ways marketers can approach it.

Make a Facebook page

Let’s start with the most obvious; do you have a Facebook page?

Since the website began inviting users to ‘like’ business pages rather than ‘become a fan’ of them, it’s much less intrusive and people seem to be far happier about this slightly more subdued way of showing their approval.

If you’re marketing a lively brand or product, don’t make do with a dull standard Facebook page, make your landing page lively and interesting.

Promote your page offsite

Don’t expect your potential fans to find you on Facebook without a little support. Add a ‘Find us on Facebook’ button to your website, email marketing communications and even printed brochures, so that people know you’re on there.

You may disagree, but I think that having a Facebook page shows that a brand is interactive and personable. So, even if people don’t bother looking you up, they may be left with a better impression of your brand.

Make your page interesting

What are you going to do with your Facebook page? Will you post deals, links to blog posts, competitions, notes, photographs of your corporate summer party (guilty!)?

You need to add content to your page so that your fans have something to interact with and so that they see your brand in their news feeds, building brand awareness.

Have a clear content strategy before you start building the page, otherwise you could suddenly be left scrambling for something to say.

Have a clear idea of what you want people to do

What are you hoping to achieve with your Facebook page? If it’s just brand awareness then you want content that people will interact with on the page. If you want to get fans to click through to your site, you’ll need links to offers and exclusives.

If it’s to create brand advocates, you need to create applications and games that people will share with their friends.

If you don’t know what you hope to achieve, then you won’t be able to create appropriate content.

Use Facebook ads

Will your marketing budget stretch to some paid Facebook ads? You can use keywords from people’s profiles to target your advertising at relevant demographics, (female friends who’ve become engaged tell me they see nothing but weight loss ads from the moment they change their relationship status!).

So, you can target people of a specific age, gender, educational level, workplace, even location.

It is a fairly cost-effective way to market your brand. You may even decide to use your advertising to drive people towards your fan page and give it a proper kick off.

Build a Facebook app

Can you create an interactive app? Some of the cleverest Facebook marketing is app-based, with the potential to turn viral and suddenly create enormous interest in your company.

You can build games, quizzes and other types of dynamic content that people will use and share.

If you don’t have the skills inhouse to create this kind of content, many business have sprung up that will develop an app with you to market your brand.

Make your content easy to share

Do you have a blog back on your website? Linking works both ways, you shouldn’t just be driving people to your site through Facebook.

In fact, you should also give people the opportunity to alert their Facebook friends to interesting content on your company website. Add a button allowing people to share the article on Facebook, as well as to Tweet it, Sphinn it, Digg it, Buzz it, or whichever your social platforms of choice are.

Make it as easy as possible for people to spread your brand message.

Create and interact with Facebook groups

Join some relevant Facebook groups and maybe even create a few. This will allow more people to see your brand, giving you the chance to build a fan base without paying for advertising.

Of course, this is a dangerous tactic if you’re a bit blunt. You mustn’t simply charge in and start trying to sell to people who are busy socialising. Instead, you should offer tips, support and advice, building confidence in your brand.

Is there a cause or campaign your company believes in? Maybe you’re a debt management company campaigning against payday loans, or a restaurant campaigning for more local food to be eaten in your town?

Create a group that promotes your cause and you’ll be able to interact with people who wouldn’t necessarily ‘like’ a brand but are very willing to support a campaign they believe in.

Give your fans exclusives

If someone has updated their Facebook page to show friends that they like your brand, you really ought to reward them.

Give them exclusive deals, sneak previews of new products, discounts – special offers to show you appreciate their support.

Use Facebook analytics

Having created a Facebook page, you need to need to monitor the success of the page. Facebook’s analytics tools allow you to see what kind of content works well.

Once you’ve created a page, you’ll be able to access this information through Facebook Insights, meaning you can see how people are interacting with your content, what demographics they belong to, which countries they are in, how many people have signed up, how many people have unsubscribed.

Make use of this information. It’s free and it will inform your developing Facebook strategy.

Don’t forget

If you’re a marketing professional, it’s not just your business you can promote through Facebook – you can also market yourself and build connections with other people in your sector.

There are groups, discussions and a thousand other ways to connect. You can even have different settings for your work-related ‘friends’, meaning they never need to see that picture of you after 12 vodka shots…

The best content for any online community is content about the community. Too many communities focus on advice or industry news. You should focus on community people and activities. Here are 20 fantastic ideas you can use:

1. Week ahead. Write a weekly piece about what members can expect in the week ahead.
2. Events preview. Write an events preview, include predictions from members, short snippet of interviews and other material that involves a broader group.
3. Events review. Review recent events. Let others contribute their opinion. Members can reflect on the event together.
4. Predictions. Invite members to make predictions about the future, everyone loves to do it.
5. Interview members. Members interviews should be cornerstone content. It creates engaged readers for life, encourages referrals and gives people means to compare themselves to others.
6. Interview VIPs. VIPs are usually eager to talk to connected groups of people. Mumsnet has interviewed no less than two Prime Ministers. Who is a VIP in your industry?
7. Product reviews. What products are members likely to be using in the future? Can you review some?
8. Member achievements. Who has achieved something fantastic this week? Ask members to submit their achievements.
9. Gossip column. Risky, but often popular. Invite members to submit topical gossip and publish it as a weekly column. Go easy on the venom, heavy on the fun.
10. Member of the week/month. Like the above, but a member of the week/month tends to be popular. Use promiscuously.
11. Statement from the community. On a frequent basis I’d ask members to contribute to a statement from the community. i.e. We’re furious bank fees are going up, please input on what you would like in a statement from the community.
12. People on the move. Who is moving? It might be people changing jobs or people moving house or any relevant ‘move’. Hard to resist this sort of content.
13. Latest news. Overused in most communities, but often useful. What’s the latest news in your topic?
14. Job vacancies. Any jobs available? Reach out to recruiters or compile a job tips page. Any information that would encourage people to participate in the job vacancies page.
15. Competition. I ‘usually’ hate competitions. When they’re done right they’re really a lot of fun.
16. VIP spotted. Has any member spotted a VIP at an event recently, submit it here.
17. Opinion pieces. Give people in your community a chance to give their opinion in a rotating-authorship opinion section. Everyone gets a turn.
18. Guest columnists. Will any relevant business in your sector write a guest column?
19. Advice section. Summarize the latest advice, what’s the general consensus of the online community?
20. News round-up. What is the round-up of the news this week? It’s a simple place a member can visit to see what’s new without trawling various sources of industry news.

"The ValueTrack parameter has long allowed you to track the clicks that you get via search and the Google Display Network separately," says Miles Johnson with Google's Inside AdWords crew. "We know that many of you would like to be able to see the clicks you get from mobile ads separately as well."

The new mobile version works the same way as the other, adding a tag to the site's URL. To utilize the feature, advertisers can add the Mobile ValueTrack parameter to the destination URL field, when creating a text ad.

Advertisers can use automatic re-directs to mobile optimized sites or third-party tracking tags. "Note that non-Google-ads traffic to your site won’t have the ValueTrack parameter, so it’s still a good idea to send all users to your mobile-optimized site," says Johnson.

In March 2009, Detroit Public Schools (DPS) was facing bankruptcy, a $305 million deficit, a decade-plus of substantially declining enrollment, and now the public backlash of closing 29 schools. All told, DPS could lose as many as 16,750 students for the 2009/2010 school year ? and millions in funding. DPS needed city families to believe great things happen at DPS. They didn?t need ads, they needed a movement. They got one. Results exceeded their enrollment projections and generated $49 million in funding - necessary for financial viability.

Burnett's campaign—which became a movement and rallying cry—helped turn things around. The schools exceeded enrollment projections for the past year and generated some $49 million in funding.Check out more in the video below and at the Effies site.  

  

 

There is so much rock and roll going on involving businesses running social media campaigns. However, there are not many social media rockstars. Their guitars vary. Some rock hard and some… not so hard. Some even have broken guitar strings. We don’t notice the size of their guitars though. What we notice is the kind of music they produce.

There are certain characteristics that differentiate the effective social media campaigns from the boring ones. You need to learn these characteristics if you also want to be effective with your campaigns.

Don’t worry if your ’strings’ are broken. You can fix it.

Here are 25 characteristics of highly effective social media campaigns (from the rockstars) and some tips to help you rock like them.

1) They spread like wildfire. Effective social media campaigns spread very fast. If your campaign is not spreading, it is not effective. Test the waters with micro campaigns. Learn to swim before attempting to ride the big waves.

2) They are not spammy. Don’t just promote your site links; share something insightful about your company or product. Don’t send out the same message to your community. It is spam…and it is very annoying to them. Even to you. Admit it.

3) They provide value. Value can come in the both physical and mental forms. Effective campaigns provide value in any or both of these regards.

4) They are well branded. Clothe your campaign from head to toe with your company’s identity. Use your logo, your USP or slogans, your colors, and any other thing that defines your business’s identity. Add your brand to every video you produce; don’t add just your website address.

5) They are measured. You need to track your social media marketing efforts. Whether you install Google Analytics on your Facebook fan page or you use Post rank to measure your effectiveness, make sure you work with the data.

6) They have excellent copy. Leave a positive impression in just a few words. Using big vocabulary is not the way to go; making sense is what matters.

7) They don’t ‘sell’. Instead of selling, you should work at generating leads with your social media campaign. Sell to those leads later on.

8 ) They build relationships. Don’t just broadcast. Interact. Building relationships  helps build even more relationships. It also increases the perception of value and builds loyalty.

9) They build trust. Be as honest in your campaign as possible. Trust is very hard to earn back once lost. Your campaign should build and maintain trust in your build.

10) They are innovative. Regular campaigns mostly go unnoticed. Innovation adds ‘flavor’ to your campaign. It is the aroma of your campaign and the one thing that will convince most people to take action.

11) They have ears. Your campaign will not be successful unless you listen for feedback. People may have something to say so listen and show appreciation or let them know you are working on it. Never delete a negative feedback.

12) They are well organized. Your campaign needs to be well planned. It should have a first step and an nth step (where n is the number of the last step). Follow through from step 1 through to step n. Don’t go from step one to step 3 to step 2. Plan your steps well so it is easy to follow through step 1 to the last step.

13) They are maintained by humans. Don’t rely on automation when it comes to marketing on the social web. It just won’t work. Besides, it destroys trust. Put a human being in front of, in-between and behind all your social media campaigns. I want to talk to a human being not a robot.

14) They are consistent. You need to be consistent with your update (or broadcast) schedules and interact with people who leave replies and comments. If you broadcast once a week and change to 5 times a day, people will begin to question your actions. Unless you give them good reason why you have changed your schedule.

15) They have bait. You need to have some sort of bait to convert visitors into leads. Try eBooks, free products, white papers, discount codes, samples, free vouchers, et cetera. Bait them to get them .

16) They use leverage. They leverage the subscriber bases of their communities and other people’s communities. They also leverage their company strengths.

17) They include a blog. I suggest you have a business blog before you start your campaign. Your blog should be the hub of your social media campaign efforts. Make you install social media sharing buttons to make it easier for others to share your blog’s content.

18) They engage other blogs. You can do this too. Apply as a guest writer for blogs in your target market. Read blogs in your niche and leave thoughtful comments (not just a “thank you”).

19) They are not everywhere. If you want your campaigns to be successful, don’t register for an account on every social media site. That will only burn you out and your campaigns will be fruitless.

20) They have humor. Adding humor to marketing is a cool way of saying “we are a friendly business”. It makes your marketing memorable. A priceless result.

21) They share company events. If your company is being bad mouthed, tell your customers about it. Tell them the truth in it and the lies. Don’t give them the chance to second guess your company. If your company is nominated for an award, tell your community about it. If your company wins the award, tell them. If you lose the award, tell them.

22) They integrate offline marketing. Print some T-Shirts, with your logo, Twitter handle, Facebook fan page URL and your slogan on it and give them out to your customers. Send out paper printed catalogs to your online leads. Add your Twitter and Facebook URLs to your contact address. Integrate offline with online.

23) They use the right networks. Even though Facebook supports videos, video campaigns will do better on Youtube than on Facebook.

24) They use photos and videos. Photos and videos leave a lasting impression on peoples’ minds. The best photo you can use is your logo. When you make a video, put your logo on it.

25) They have a call to action. What is the essence of a marketing campaign without having a call to action of some sort? I suggest you use your social marketing campaigns to generate leads before trying to sell anything. By the way, “signup below” and “call us now” are not the only call to action examples. “Click to view our portfolio” is an example of call to action. Your call to actions must follow a sequence; from your homepage to the last page.

Mercedes-Benz and McDonald’s spend millions of dollars marketing their brands to make them visible, relevant, different, cool, or perhaps ... to make them sell. Today the two very different companies are investing more in a similar strategy to make their medallions and their Arches "social." They hope Facebook Likers and Twitter Followers will generate social buzz leading to better brand images and ultimately selling more more cars and burgers (respectively). The marketing mantra now in Stuttgart and Oak Brook is to stimulate positive “conversations” and word-of-mouth about their brands.

To what extent these efforts work is the subject of an all-too familiar debate between CFOs and CMOs, clients, and agencies, advertising and PR pros. It is not easy to compare Mercedes’ and McDonalds’ social marketing strategies or "brand value." But a new study by Vivaldi Partners and Lightspeed Research (Download the full PDF) suggests that leading car brands achieve higher levels of "social currency" than top fast-food brands; therefore, automotive marketers, more than their quick-serve restaurant counterparts, should invest in and focus on the new “metric” as a way to build brand value and sales.

Brand social currency is defined as the extent to which people share the brand and/or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home. Here are five lessons from the study:

1. The Ultimate Social Currency Machine … BMW will always have higher social currency than Burger King … will always be a cooler brand

The data show that certain categories, for example, cars, airlines and technology, have greater social currency than personal care and fast-food. Why? We will talk about our iPads and Beemers (BMW: 81% top score on “conversation,” one of the six dimensions of social currency) with friends and colleagues more than we will talk about our Right Guard and Whoppers. Macs more than Big Macs! And tweet and blog about them more too. Cars will always embody and express our social selves to a greater degree than hamburgers, or so we hope.

Jonah Berger, Assistant Professor at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania argues that brands can be “social epidemics” and discusses BMW’s appeal:

“BMW is a strong brand that is closely tied to the owner’s identity. Given that it’s a status symbol, talking about owning a BMW makes the owner look good, so he or she will talk about the brand to self-enhance.”

2. Premium brands have higher social currency

The findings generally show that brands with higher ticket prices will have higher social currency scores. It is possible though that consumers assign a higher rating to the expensive things they have bought in order to justify, rationalize these decisions.

The study also concludes that social currency correlates to brand loyalty and that brands with a higher social currency score will command a higher price premium. (Most marketing experts agree on the link between loyalty and premium pricing levels.)

3. Transportation brands have higher social currency

Four of the top five social currency scores (among over 60 brands across a dozen categories) are from brands we ride or fly. And the fifth-ranked brand, Apple, one could argue, “magically” transports us to a variety of worlds on-line and off.

Brand Social Currency Score:
1. BMW 69%
2. Mercedes 68%
3. Lexus 66%
4. JetBlue 65%
5. Apple 63%

Automobiles have always been seen by their makers and drivers as an expression of the buyer’s personality and status. We spend a lot of time in them for work and play according to Berger. Car companies design vehicles and brands to appeal to certain psychographic and social segments.

In the airline category, it is also notable that the newer breed of airline (JetBlue, Virgin and Southwest) which celebrates their people, passengers and fun, and not transportation, received higher social currency scores than the traditional carriers. Perhaps the upstart brands were social before there was social.

4. Talkable brands have higher social currency

We talk about cars and computers with friends and at the office and feel comfortable doing so. We think nothing of sharing details about these brand experiences and features. We give and receive recommendations (Mercedes: 81% top score on “Advocacy”). But we do less talking and less recommending about tacos, razors and beers. Our driving and work machines are more interesting and cool to chat about off-line and on Facebook.

Philip Kotler, Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management says, "BMW is the car that drivers talk about, not passengers. BMW owns the phrase ‘driving performance.’ I don't like to be a passenger in this car because the driver has all the fun and I just get tossed around."

5. “Durable” brands have higher social currency

Vehicles and technology are big investments that are supposed to last for a while. We buy a warranty, service, a long-term relationship with the brand after plonking down our “hard currency”. These brands which get us to work, help us work, help us play, support our families, endure with us, are inherently more social and currency-rich. But drive-through restaurants, basic beers and daily deodorants--which are consumed in the most utilitarian way, disposable products and experiences--naturally possess lower social currency.

BMW AG’s Chairman of the Board, Dr. Norbert Reithofer, recently discussed the brand’s enduring value and cited its number 1 Social Currency score.

Erich Joachimsthaler, CEO of Vivaldi Partners and creator of the study, says BMW’s success is no accident. “No other automotive company has so strongly codified emotional and self-expressive benefits to such a broad consumer audience. Its core identity values are dynamic, challenging and cultured. These identity elements create meaning to a broad audience, independent of the traditional perspective of lifestyle in terms of economic or social class.”

Corporate brand leaders at BMW, Jet Blue and Apple should continue to invest in products, services, experiences and communications that lead to greater social currency because they will realize the pay-off. The Burger Kings and the Gillettes of the world should still work to be socially relevant, but for them trying to build up social currency is not as easy and probably not as smart.

Of the nineteen media types tracked by Kantar Media, thirteen experienced a spending increase in the first quarter. At the forefront, Spot TV surged 22% on what Kantar analysts term a “torrent” of additional money from the automotive, retail, financial service and political categories. Despite this growth, current spending volume in Spot TV has only recovered to a level last seen in 1997.

Other television media types also performed strongly. Network TV expenditures received a boost from the Winter Olympics and finished the period up 11.6%. Cable TV (+8.2%) and Spanish Language TV (+7.2%) each benefited from selling more ad time and strengthened demand among across a broad range of package goods and retail advertisers.

Radio Ends Long Drought
After a three-year slump, radio ad expenditures finally had a turnaround. National Spot Radio advanced 19% and was paced by higher spending from the telecom, financial service and auto categories. Local Radio (+4.6%) and Network Radio (+3%) were also up.

Print Media Mostly Lags
Print media, on the whole, continued to lag the overall ad market. Consumer Magazine spending fell 3.9% from a year ago, while Local Newspapers dropped 5.6%. There was improvement in some narrow segments, as Sunday Magazine expenditures jumped 13.7% and National Newspapers increased 9.1%, primarily from gains at the Wall Street Journal, according to Kantar.

Top Categories Increase Overall Expenditures
Of the top 10 spending categories in the first quarter, only one - direct response - fell, down by 3.2%, according to other Q1 2010 ad spending data from Kantar. Overall, expenditures for the 10 largest advertising categories rose 7.8% in the first quarter and totaled $17.95 billion.

Automotive was the leading category by dollar volume and also had the highest growth rate among the top 10, with spending up 18.6% to $3,016.8 million, ending a streak of 18 consecutive quarterly declines. Manufacturers and dealerships reacted quickly to an improving sales environment by ramping up marketing efforts with TV, magazines and radio being the main beneficiaries.

Fast Company's 100 Most Creative People in Business represent the best and the brightest in innovation and creation, but the companies they rep aren't all powerhouses--yet. Here are 10 of the most creative small business drawn from our list of the 100.

1. Foursquare No company is banking on our obsession with geolocation as well as Foursquare. The social networking app rewards users with points and badges for checking in at physical locations. Foursquare secured $1.35 million in funding this fall, and has more than 1 million users. The company has formed partnerships with Conde Nast, Zagat, the New York Times, and HBO to offer rewards to users, and with its fast growing network (10 people check-in every second), we can only expect more to be on the way.

2. Behance Three years ago, Behance was born as a Web-based platform for creatives--a place to show of their work regardless of their resumes, hoping to turn more ideas into reality. Since then, it’s connected advertising and creative agencies discover artists and designers, attracting recruiters from Disney and Apple. Behance’s annual 99% Conference--“genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”--rallies creatives and entrepreneurs to execute ideas. A few of CEO Scott Belsky’s tips? Keep a notebook, indulge your obsessions, share ideas, and work hard.

3. Union Square Ventures Union Square Ventures has become an authority on entrepreneurialism thanks to its vocal blog on the venture capital firm’s Web site. With successful startups like Twitter, Etsy, Boxee, and Zynga in its portfolio, the firm is a resource on Web-based services and social media, and its public discussion of how the team approaches investments has shed light on a typically close-mouthed business.

4. FreeForm Despite finding success in commercial filmmaking and advertising, Jesse Dylan, son of Bob Dylan, is focusing his time on making the world a better place with media through FreeForm. Having created content for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, TED, and the Clinton Global Initiative, among others, FreeForm prides itself on emotionally engaging campaigns that entertain and inspire change and action. Recent work includes the creation of the iParticipate campaign which, in collaboration with the Entertainment Industry Foundation, calls for nationwide community service.

5. Design Futurist Founded by fashion designer and Parsons School of Design graduate Natalia Allen, Design Futurist is working to create better business models for a sustainable fashion economy, free of “gimmicks and greenwashing.” Advising clients from Calvin Klein to Quiksilver on how to create sustainable design, Design Futurist works on product development from beginning to end, helping companies respond to cultural and environmental changes. DKNY recently enlisted Design Futurist to reinvent a waterproof jacket, using sustainable materials and suppliers. This year, the company launched a workshop series to spread its knowledge on green fashion.

6. Kickstarter Storm Thorgerson is the graphic design brain behind infamous album art, most notably Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon. Interested in seeing a film about his life behind the scenes of the rock and roll world? You can--if you help fund it. Kickstarter is a Web-based platform that crowdsources funding for creative projects. The Thorgerson project is hoping to raise $20,000 in the next month or so (current pledges total $3,280), but Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing policy means that if a project doesn’t reach its goal, the donations--of which Kickstarter gets a 5% cut--aren’t processed. To motivate the loosening of our purse strings, projects offer incentives, from artwork to a copy of the finished project to credit on a film. Admittedly, half the projects featured on the year-old site don’t succeed, but more than 1,000 have reached their funding goals.

7. Majora Carter Group After years working in the non-profit sector, addressing environmental justice in her South Bronx neighborhood, Majora Carter entered the world of for-profit entrepreneurship in 2008 when she founded the Majora Carter Group. The consultancy focuses on helping communities become more vibrant by working to address concerns like public health, storm-water management, waste disposal, and social services. MCG is working to build two 10,000 square-foot greenhouses in Detroit, and hopes to expand these programs to cities across the country, with the goal of launching a national brand of locally produced urban produce. With a heavy focus on “green collar” work and job development, MCG’s projects don’t just improve communities, but sustain them.

8. Boxee The open-source portal lets users consume all their digital media from their television. Boxee pulls from more than 300 sources of online video, music, and photos—from Pandora to Netflix to Flickr—and more than a million users have gone for the free application, which also lets friends (legally) share info about what they’re watching via Twitter, Last.FM, or Tumblr. Since 2008, Boxee has received $10 million from two rounds of funding (Union Square Ventures has invested). Up next? A box that lets you access all your content without the help of a PC.

9. Altimeter Group Focused on disruptive technologies, the advisory firm’s office--called the Hangar--lets clients learn about and experiment with new technologies. Experts in leadership and management, customer strategy, enterprise strategy, and innovation and design, Altimeter helps companies navigate changes brought on by the disruptive nature of social media, all the while taking advantage of the new technology.

10. Chatroulette How to create an Internet fad: Let people be weird. At least, in the case of Chatroulette, that formula seems to work. The voyeuristic Web site, which connects random users via Webcam and allows them to “next” their partners whenever they please, has become a stage for bizarre performance art, nudity, and “perverts,” according to one study. The fascination attracts more than a million users a day, which is good news for its 17-year-old creator, Andrey Ternovskiy (he built the site in a few days with $10,000 from his parents). He’s fielded million-dollar offers for the site, but--convinced that’s not enough--is hanging on to it for now.